BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE BIRMINGHAM RAIL JAM

A little recap from our man Greg Flowers, aka G-flow, from Boneheadx who was on the scene at the 4th annual Don Thomas Downtown B-ham Rail Jam on Sept. 22nd.So.. the Saturday morning alarm goes off and I stretch – knowing it’s going to be a BIG day in Birmingham. We all knew that there was a chance of rain today- “Rain or Shine” they say… We still have to load the gear up and get on the road no matter what! A little known fact is that checking the weather to me is bad luck. After all, this is Michigan, we love it here and along with that love is the acceptance that if you stick around for 5 or more minutes… it will change – and change it did. On the way down, we drove through some nasty downpours and like clockwork, sunny skys complete with a double rainbow! (what does it mean?)

Arriving around 7:45am at Don Thomas Sporthaus we spot our venue, it was a little patch of turf across from the shop and the PARX set-up was ready to go. Barriers in place and several ski and snowboard reps setting up. Snowboards and skis on display in anticipation of the crowds to arrive within the next hour or so. Park and unload, it took us only a little while to set up the “Check-in / registration” booth, post the start list, and like everyone there, check out all the tents going up! At 8:45am we already started to get a line for registration and the buzz was about the set-up and the fact that there wasn’t any snow on it – Yet. No worries though as it was still ride-able thanks to some Powderpak! It’s the same surface they have atMisfit Lab in Fenton (Indoor Skate & Snow park). Just then, the truck arrives with the dump trailer at 9:10am… we have our first snow of the season thanks to Josh at JZ Landscaping for picking up and transporting the snow from several local Hockey rinks. Instantly there were several hands on shovels spreading the love around we call snow! All-in-all, we ended up with 24 yards of the white stuff, just in time for the 10am practice sessions to begin.

Practice was flowing, the music pumping and the spectators were, well… spectating or watching the weather on their smartphones. I warned them not to look, then someone (nameless person) said “LOOK” and shoved the phone in my face. It was too late, I saw the green glob of doom headed our way. Just as we were about to start, it wasn’t matter of “IF” it was going to rain, it was more like “When” it was going to rain. Being right on schedule, I opted to go to a 15 minute jam session for each heat and try to power through. As we began, the clock offered the 20 minute suggestion and we kept the original heat times – keeping all the riders amped on the comp.

The more we prepared for rain, the more it looked like we were going to miss it! Again, if you wait 5-minutes… you know the rest. At noon we had a small demo with K-Zoo’s very own Rebecca Selig! She handpicked a few riders to join her in a little session before the comp started promptly at 12:30pm. From the four heats, we took the top 5 riders in the bigger classes, with 15 & Over Men Ski and Snowboard. The final was slated for 2:30pm and went off with some really intense riding. A couple transfers – some goofiness and super technical tricks as well as a horse’s head at some point! Yep, leave it to Don Piano (O.D.Dixon) for that!

To explain everything that went down would be nearly impossible for me, so I will instead refer you to some of the video footage taken while everything was going down! “Think SNOW” G~Flow